Beach Cleanups in NumbersLitter collected, volunteers and what washes ashore in Japan and worldwide, and research on cleanup effects

Beach cleanups, in numbers

A beach cleanup is picking up, by hand, litter that has washed ashore or been dropped on the coast. In fiscal 2024, Japan's prefectures and municipalities collected 39,551.5 t of litter washed ashore under a national subsidy programme based on the Marine Litter Disposal Promotion Act, in 21,363 cleanups with 265,404 participants (Ministry of the Environment). This page lists the amounts, participants, items and research findings on beach cleanups from government, international and academic sources.

Karatsu Farm & Food, a nonprofit in Karatsu, Saga, made this page as part of the Karatsu Data Bank. We run beach cleanups and environmental education with island schools. The page gives no conclusions or evaluations, only figures and statements from the sources. All photos on this page are illustrative Unsplash images, not photos of Karatsu. Our own records are on a separate page (Karatsu marine litter and beach cleanup data, Japanese).

Fiscal year	Japan total	Cleanups	Length cleaned	Saga	Nagasaki
FY2020	27,740 t	16,083	10,094 km	657 t	2,300 t
FY2021	39,007 t	16,101	12,845 km	743 t	2,199 t
FY2022	54,266 t	21,965	16,746 km	356 t	2,436 t
FY2023	27,554 t	18,956	14,357 km	282 t	2,333 t
FY2024	39,551.5 t	21,363	41,902.5 km	425.2 t	2,300.4 t

How much marine litter is collected on Japan's coasts

The amount collected under the programme changes greatly from year to year: 27,740 t in FY2020, 54,266 t in FY2022, 27,554 t in FY2023 and 39,551.5 t in FY2024. It was 8,671 t in FY2009 (Ministry of the Environment). In FY2024, Saga Prefecture collected 425.2 t in 294 cleanups over 1,011.4 km; neighbouring Nagasaki collected 2,300.4 t.

Rank	Most common by count (share)	Most common by weight (share)
1	Oyster farming spacer tubes (17.8%)	Wood and timber (23.2%)
2	Oyster farming pipes (12.6%)	Plastic rope and string (17.9%)
3	Plastic rope and string (11.5%)	Hard plastic fragments (11.1%)
4	Bottle caps (11.1%)	Fishing nets (9.4%)
5	PET bottles under 1 L (7.3%)	Polystyrene floats and buoys (8.1%)

What washes ashore: Japan's beach litter composition survey

Every year the Ministry of the Environment surveys the types and amounts of beach litter. In FY2023, 87,725 man-made items weighing 7,852 kg were collected at 76 sites. Plastics were 93% by count and 72% by weight; plastic classed as sea-based made up 44% of the total weight of man-made items (Ministry of the Environment). In FY2022, at sites on the upstream side of the Tsushima Current, Korean was the most common language on PET bottles (Ministry of the Environment). Saga's survey site in both years was a beach in Karatsu (幸多里海岸); site-level figures are not published.

Programme	Scale	When	Source
National coastal litter programme (participants)	289,902	FY2022 (record)	MOE
Same	253,302	FY2023	MOE
Same	265,404	FY2024	MOE
Umigomi Zero Week	About 1,300 sites, more than 600,000 people	FY2024	MOE
SPOGOMI (litter picking as a sport)	About 190,000 participants and 1,800 events in total; about 280 events in 2024	2024	SPOGOMI
Pirika (litter-picking app)	More than 470 million items in 137 countries and regions	Checked 28 Oct 2026	Pirika

How many people take part

Participants in cleanups under the national programme peaked at 289,902 in FY2022 and were 265,404 in FY2024 (Ministry of the Environment). Umigomi Zero Week, run by the Nippon Foundation and the Ministry, drew more than 600,000 people at about 1,300 sites in FY2024 (Ministry of the Environment).

Year	Volunteers	Weight	Distance	Items	Top item	Japan
2023	486,045	3,612,215 kg	16,308 mi	14,339,832	Cigarette butts 1,947,483	3,651 people, 12,475 kg
2024	486,706	3,387,301 kg	15,304.3 mi	17,820,206	Food wrappers 1,442,860	4,101 people, 9,521 kg
2025	630,069	3,586,528 kg	15,142 mi	13,861,048	Plastic beverage bottles 1,338,712	4,369 people, 5,736 kg

Beach cleanups worldwide: the International Coastal Cleanup

Ocean Conservancy has run the International Coastal Cleanup since 1986. In 2025, 630,069 volunteers collected 3,586,528 kg. The top items were plastic beverage bottles (1,338,712), cigarette butts (1,197,920), bottle caps (885,854) and beverage cans (840,046). Japan had 4,369 volunteers and 5,736 kg (Ocean Conservancy). JEAN, Japan's ICC coordinator, registered 236 cleanups from October 2024 to September 2025, 195 of them recording data on ICC cards (JEAN).

Study	What was studied	Reported result
Haarr et al. (2024)	Three beaches in Lofoten, Norway, surveyed every two weeks for 31 months	On average 10 items per 100 m per day arrived; median residence time 99 days; frequent small cleanups can remove 3 to 4 times more litter than rare large ones
Ryan et al. (2014)	Daily versus weekly cleaning	Daily cleaning collected 2.5 times (2.1–3.4) more items and 1.7 times (1.3–2.3) more weight than weekly cleaning
Smith & Markic (2013)	Survey interval and estimated litter abundance	A three-day gap underestimates abundance by 50%; a month, by an order of magnitude
Dijkstra (2025)	Henderson Island after a full cleanup in 2019	Annual accumulation fell from 284.75 to 16.8 g/m², but 53 items/m² remained
Zielinski et al. (2019)	Review of beach cleaning methods and 11 beach award schemes	Calls for studies comparing method efficiency on beaches with different use, and for isolating the effects of mechanical cleaning
Wyles et al. (2017)	90 students assigned to a beach clean, rock-pooling or a walk	All three improved mood and pro-environmental intentions; the beach clean was rated most meaningful, with lower restorativeness ratings of the environment

Research on the effects of cleanups

A cleanup removes what is on the beach at that moment. A 31-month study of three Norwegian beaches found litter arriving at about 10 items per 100 m per day, staying a median of 99 days, and that frequent small cleanups can remove 3 to 4 times more litter than rare large ones (Haarr et al. 2024). An experiment with 90 students found a beach clean improved mood and was rated the most meaningful of three coastal activities (Wyles et al. 2017).

Item	Value	Source
Litter washing ashore on Tsushima (estimate)	30,000 to 40,000 m³ a year; about 70% from abroad, such as Korea and China	Tsushima City
Tsushima coastline	915 km	Tsushima City
Composition of litter collected on Tsushima (FY2022; the poster chart is in m³)	Wood 34%, polystyrene 33%, PET bottles and buoys 22%, nets and rope 9%	Tsushima City
Participants in beach cleanups run or co-run by Karatsu Farm & Food	3,313 (cumulative, as of April 2026)	our records

Tsushima and Karatsu

Tsushima City estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 m³ of litter washes ashore every year, about 70% of it from abroad (Tsushima City). In Karatsu, 3,313 people have taken part in beach cleanups run or co-run by Karatsu Farm & Food (as of April 2026). Corporate programmes such as Plastic Whale's plastic fishing in Amsterdam (EUR 54 per person excluding VAT, Plastic Whale) are listed on Hotel Sustainability in Numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. How much marine litter is collected on Japan's coasts each year?

Under the national coastal litter programme, prefectures and municipalities collected 39,551.5 t in FY2024; including NGOs and the Ministry, the total was 39,678 t (Ministry of the Environment, March 2026).

Q2. What are the most common items on Japan's beaches?

In the FY2023 composition survey, oyster farming spacer tubes were most common by count (17.8%) and wood by weight (23.2%); plastics were 93% by count and 72% by weight.

Q3. Do beach cleanups work?

Research in Norway found frequent small cleanups can remove 3 to 4 times more litter than rare large ones (Haarr et al. 2024), and daily cleaning collected 2.5 times more items and 1.7 times more weight than weekly cleaning (Ryan et al. 2014).

Q4. How many people join the International Coastal Cleanup?

630,069 volunteers worldwide in 2025, collecting 3,586,528 kg; 4,369 in Japan (Ocean Conservancy).

Q5. Can companies or schools join a beach cleanup in Karatsu?

Yes. Karatsu Farm & Food runs beach cleanups on the coast and islands of Karatsu. Contact us via the contact form or info@karatsu-f-f.com.

Source ledger

What this page does not cover

Evaluations of organisations, programmes or cleaning methods; values read off charts; figures not confirmed in primary sources; site-level litter amounts (not published); seabed and microplastic estimates; and the FY2024 composition survey (not found as of 28 October 2026).

Citing this page and enquiries

To cite these figures, or to discuss beach cleanups and workshops for companies, schools or groups, use our contact form or info@karatsu-f-f.com.

About this page

By Hiroaki Kojima (Vice Director, Karatsu Farm & Food) / Contact: info@karatsu-f-f.com (contact form) / Published 28 October 2026 / Markdown: beach-cleanup-data.md

This page is made together with AI. See this data bank and AI for how. Photos are from Unsplash (illustrative).

Related links

▶ Karatsu Data Bank
▶ Plastic in Numbers
▶ Why recycling ocean plastic is hard
▶ Remote Islands in Numbers
▶ Hotel Sustainability in Numbers
▶ 日本語版